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Soon to be Illegal...Your Right to Know
I try to stay out of politics with work and friends, but when it comes down to making it illegal to eat REAL food, I get crazy angry. This may come as a shock to you, but the government is secretly pushing along a bill that will prevent any state from labeling whether their food is genetically modified or not.
As a nutritional therapist, I love science and respect the advances we have made in the health world. However, I don't feel that we have been able to do better than mother nature in the creation of food.
But, whether or not you want to eat GMO foods, don't you think you deserve the right to know if you are eating them or not?
In 2012 when the state of CA defeated prop 37 to label GMO foods, I was disappointed. Not that I thought people wanted to eat crap, I just thought they must be misinformed. In fact Monsanto, the leading maker and profiter of GMO foods spent over 7 million dollars to make sure we were confused. Here is a list of other synthetic "food" companies and how much they spent to prevent labeling.
$$$ Spent Against Labeling GMO's
Monsanto - $7,100,500
DuPont - $4,900,000
Pepsi - $2,145,400
Bayer - $2,000,000
Dow - $2,000,000
BASF - $2,000,000
Syngenta - $2,000,000
Kraft Foods - $1,950,000
Coca-Cola - $1,455,500
Nestle - $1,315,600
General Mills - $1,135,000
ConAgra - $1,077,000
Kellogg’s - $790,000
Smithfield - $684,000
It's one thing for me to sit back and recommend that clients don't buy from these food giants, but the problem is about to effect everyone. We need to make a difference especially if we don't want to see our children suffering from the same illnesses we are facing now.
Practitioners are finding massive connections between GMO foods and autism, autoimmune disease, obesity, digestive disease, cancer, asthma, allergies, infertility, etc. Ecologists are finding massive destruction of farmlands, oceans, and wildlife.
Isn't it scary that we don't really know what the full effect of these foods have on our health and our planet? Regardless, soon we are all going to be forced to eat GMO foods unknowingly?
On July 23rd, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1599 to permanently prevent any state or federal law from mandating the labeling of GMO foods. It's now in front of the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, soon to be in front of the Senate.
My hope is that President Obama vetoes this bill staying true to his words in his 2007 campaign speech to Iowa. In his own words Obama said:
"We’ll let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified, because Americans should know what they’re buying.”
I agree! Completely! Now, I want to hold him accountable to his words. Food is my medicine, my tool, my health and I feel like it's all in the hands of someone ready to roll the dice. I can't tell what he's going to do and I'm scared.
Although reports show the majority of people want the right to label foods, the government is taking advantage of our confusion. Since 2013 Monsanto has been reported to have spent $147 billion dollars to confuse us even further.
Don't be fooled by the $$$ behind this bill. It's called The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act to be sure it's passed by all that buy into the language. But, it should be called what it's known as, The DARK Act, because it denies Americans the right to know.
We simply can't sit on our tuffet and wait this one out. Please don't look the other way. It's time to get in the face of your senator whether by e-mail, phone, or face and let them know that you have the right to know what's in your food.
The Organic Consumers Association is a great place to read more and get in the action, sign a petition, donate funds, or get help writing a letter. Here are a few more places you can go:
You may have voted incorrectly in 2013, but you can fix it now. Be our children's hero and help them avoid the destruction of their health and the health of their planet. Demand the Right to Know!